This What’s Out There Weekend focuses on the built legacy of Los Angeles-based landscape architect Ralph Cornell, who studied at Pomona College and Harvard University, and opened one of the city’s first landscape architecture practices in 1919. Considered by some "the Olmsted of Los Angeles," Cornell is known for his design restraint and thoughtful use of indigenous plantings. His work can be seen throughout Southern California, including Beverly Gardens Park, the UCLA campus, Hillside Memorial Park, downtown LA’s Civic Center, and the restoration of the historic grounds at the National Historic Landmark-designated Rancho Los Cerritos. This What's Out There Weekend features free, expert-led tours of more than a dozen significant Cornell-designed landscapes in greater Los Angeles. Read more about Cornell and his legacy.

The Weekend kicks off with an event co-sponsored by California Garden and Landscape History Society and UCLA Library Special Collections including a lecture by Brian Tichenor, professor at USC’s School of Architecture, and the opening of an exhibit in the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library, “Ralph D. Cornell: Dean of Southern California Landscape Architecture.” This retrospective of Cornell’s life and career, on view November 7 through December 23, 2014, features a diverse array of drawings, renderings, photographs, and artifacts, many of which have never been publicly displayed. Steven Keylon, Curator, with Kelly Comras. Curatorial assistance from Sam Watters and Genie Guerard. Installation by Octavio Olvera.

The What’s Out There Weekend program dovetails with the Web-based What’s Out There, the nation’s most comprehensive searchable database of historic designed landscapes. The database currently features more than 1,700 sites, 10,000 images and 900 designer profiles. And, What's Out There is optimized for iPhones and similar handheld devices, and includes What's Nearby - a GPS-enabled function that locates all landscapes in the database within a 25-mile radius of any given location.